The Sound of the Devil's Laughter
by Mrs Pepperpot
Summary: A one-shot story - Alex has a bad dream, and meets a face from her past, it appears that she must make a choice, her daughter or the man she loves? Because she can't have both, can she?


**I wanted to write a spooky one-shot story for Halloween, except it didn't really work out that way, and I ended up writing this instead. It's not really what I intended, but I thought I'd post it anyway and see what people think. Thank you for reading and reviewing. - Mrs P. (This story has been rewritten and reformatted since it was first posted).**

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The Sound of the Devil's Laughter

Alex's eyes opened wide as she was jolted suddenly from her previously peaceful slumber. She looked around her in a panic, and strained to listen for anything out of the ordinary which could account for her sudden awakening, but the room was dark and quiet. It appeared that whatever had disturbed her had not bothered her companion, as he lay on his side deep in sleep, his breathing slow and even. Alex moved to mould herself against his solid form and placed a soft kiss between his shoulder blades, but still he did not stir. She didn't want to wake him when he looked so contented in sleep, and so she eased herself gently out of bed, her naked body shivering against the sudden cold as she had been so snug before.

Alex grabbed her robe and tied it tightly around her waist as she slowly made her way out of the bedroom, careful not to make a noise. It was as she walked out of the bedroom towards the bathroom, that she caught the glimpse of a familiar figure in the corner of her eye. He was sat by the window bathed in moonlight, and the sight shocked her so much she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Dad?" She gasped at the man who was little more than a dark shadow.

He wore no clown outfit now, and was dressed instead in the kind of casual attire he had worn at home, his glasses glinted in the moonlight.

"Hello, Alex," he replied, his voice sounding cold and detached.

"You aren't really here. It's just a dream, a bad dream, that's all." Alex said trying to reason her father's presence away.

"A bad dream? Yes, I suppose that's exactly what this is, a nightmare in fact," he said pointedly.

"Well, lovely to see you again Dad, and do give my love to Mum, if she's not too mad with you, about the whole being blown up to kingdom come thing, that is. I'm obviously still asleep, so I'll just go," Alex said dismissively as she moved to retreat back into the bedroom.

"And when you wake up, everything will be alright, will it? Back to normal, hmm? You don't belong here, Alex, any more than I do, and you know it," he said mockingly.

"No, no maybe I don't, but I'm making the best of it until I can go home." Alex reasoned as she thought of the man she had left sleeping in the next room.

"Making the best of it, is that what you call it? So you haven't fallen in love with an imaginary construct then?" He asked his voice filled with sarcasm.

Alex considered the situation for a moment as she felt her anger rising, but then she began to calm down as she remembered this was only a dream.

"You aren't really here, so we aren't really having this conversation." Alex stated with logic she wasn't even sure she possessed anymore.

"Alright, have it your way, well off you go then, back to your imaginary lover." Tim said with contempt.

"What do you know of love, imaginary or otherwise? You took my mother away from me and you would have killed me too, if you could've. I never knew just how much she loved me, and because of you she never got the chance to show me." Alex said angrily as tears filled her eyes, suddenly she didn't care if it was only a dream, there were things she needed to say to her father.

"What I did was all for love, for the love of my family, that snake slithered into our lives and destroyed everything," he said his voice still cold and detached.

"You can't put all the blame on Evan, if it wasn't for him I would have been left completely alone. He was the one who looked after me, brought me up and loved me like a daughter, he was my father, not you." Alex said, her anger still burning.

"Ah, yes, good old Saint Evan! Why do you think he took you in? Was it out of the kindness of his heart? No, it was guilt, pure and simple, still at least he had a conscience, all the better to make him suffer." Tim said with a satisfied smile.

"What Evan did was wrong, and he knew it, I'm sure he did feel guilty; he's too good a man not to have. But what YOU did…" Alex stopped and took a deep shuddering breath as the feelings of anger and revulsion threatened to overtake her.

"Poor Alex, you would have done better to stay in the car with your mother and me. You've suffered so much when you could have had eternal peace, and now poor little Molly will suffer her mother's fate, left all alone in the world." Tim said with a condescending tone.

"No. No, I won't let that happen, I am going home to Molly, she needs me and I won't let her down." Alex said defiantly.

"You know, you said that with such conviction, I almost believed you, almost." Tim said as he gave her a look of mock pity.

"I don't know what you mean." Alex said her anger flaring again.

"I think you do. You're the great psychologist, aren't you? But I'll give you a helping hand, I'll spell it out for you and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but of course I won't be wrong, will I?" Tim said with conviction.

"Go on, just say it." Alex impatiently spat out.

"Alright then, when you arrived in this world you were able to dismiss it as nothing more than a coma dream, a by-product of the trauma to your brain after being shot in the head, I mean a bullet in the brain has got to do all kinds of damage, hasn't it? But as time moved on you became less certain about your original conviction, you became friends with those you had earlier dismissed as imaginary constructs, dared to love them even. There is one in particular that you love, and you did try and fight it, I know you did. You thought if you fought against it you could overcome those feelings, dismiss them as illogical, but it didn't work, did it? So you reasoned that maybe if you gave in to how you felt, and let yourself love him, that perhaps you could somehow get it out of your system, only that hasn't worked either, has it? Your feelings for him now run deeper than ever, and you can't imagine not having him in your life. There, my dear Alex, is your dilemma, it is one or the other, you can't have both, you can't go home to Molly and stay with the man you love. Still, there's always Saint Evan, we mustn't forget about him. He picked up the pieces for you, and maybe he will do the same for Molly. He isn't a young man anymore though, is he? And there's his health to consider, I mean he's already had one heart attack and all this stress can't be good for him, can it? Not to mention how his precious conscience must be troubling him over his involvement with Arthur Layton, your would-be assassin," he said with false concern as he twisted the knife again.

"Evan's fine, he has made a lot of lifestyle changes since the heart attack, which was only a mild one anyway, he's stopped smoking and he watches his diet. I dare say recent events have caused him a lot of upset, but I know he will want to stay strong for Molly. I know I can't stay here forever and if I wake up, no, when I wake up, I will be back where I should be, with Molly, and this world and everyone in it will be gone from me forever." Alex said with calm certainty.

"And you can accept that, can you? When you are back with Molly, you won't spend everyday wondering if he would still be here waiting for you, if you could only come back?" Tim asked with scepticism.

"When I return home to Molly, I'll have my old life back, I was happy there before and I will be again." Alex said her uneasy tone betraying her uncertainty.

"You know you can be honest with me, Alex. I know what you've really been thinking with all your little calculations, you think years spent here with him would only be days of waiting and hoping for Molly." Tim said reproachfully.

"Well I've been in this world for over two years now and only a few days have passed there." Alex explained as she acknowledged the truth of her father's accusation.

"It seems to me that you don't know anything for sure. You say you want to go home to Molly, but yet you would stay here for years if you could with the man you love, maybe even give him the child you know he secretly yearns for. I know you're tempted, more than tempted, in fact you might already be pregnant here and if you are, then what? You are my daughter, Ale, and I know that like me, you are capable of doing whatever it takes for the ones you love, but you will have to decide where your heart truly lies." Tim spoke as if he was giving one of his courtroom summations.

"I'm nothing like you," she spat back defensively, fearing she might be after all.

Tim rose from his window seat and, still silhouetted by the moonlight, he began to walk slowly towards where Alex was standing, she shrank back against the wall, desperate to escape back to the security of the bedroom.

"I'll bid you farewell now, I do so wish that you could have stayed with your mother and me, where you belonged. I fear you will never really belong anywhere ever again. I don't think you are like me, Alex, because I was able to make my choice and not look back, I knew in my heart that I was right, and that is all that mattered." Tim finished talking as he came to a standstill just inches away from her.

She couldn't stand to be so close to him, and as he reached out his hand to touch her face she tried to move away, but she was as close to the wall as could be. She clamped her eyes shut and grimaced as she waited for his hand to make contact with her skin, but the sensation never came, and she opened her eyes to find him gone. Alex blinked against the darkness; the moon must have disappeared behind a cloud as the room was no longer bathed in its light. There was no trace of her father anywhere, and Alex silently admonished herself for even checking; of course there would be no evidence of him, he was never there. She quickly scuttled off into the bathroom and slumped down onto the toilet seat, she sat for what seemed like hours, her head full of the things her father had said. After a while her legs began to feel numb, and she stood up and moved to the sink to splash her face with cold water, as she looked up into the mirror she could swear for a second that she saw the clown standing behind her, but when she turned back, he was gone. She looked at her pale reflection in the mirror; she had been feeling sick on and off for a few days now, and the dark circles under her eyes made them look hollowed out in the darkness. The tiredness that had been haunting her began to overtake her again as she headed back to the bedroom, and she felt totally drained as she shrugged off her robe to slide under the bedcovers. She was surprised to see by the bedside clock that hardly any time had passed since she had been out of the room, and her companion was still sleeping soundly. She closed her eyes and soon drifted off.

_Somewhere far in the distance she could hear the sound of crying as she walked down a long hospital corridor, nurses and doctors buzzed in and out of rooms but no one seemed to notice her. Eventually she came to a door and there was a name written on the board, it was her name, and she pushed the door open to see herself lying in the bed with Molly sat close by her side weeping. She rushed to Molly to take her in her arms and comfort her, but she found herself to be invisible and without form. Molly couldn't see or touch her and she continued to weep as Evan entered the room with a doctor. The doctor turned to look at Evan with an unspoken question, Evan slowly nodded his head in reply and they both turned their attention to Molly as the doctor began to speak._

"_Molly, you know that your Mum was hurt very badly, and we hoped that maybe we could make her better, she was very strong and she fought so hard to stay with us, but she couldn't fight anymore."_

"_No, I'm here, I'm here." Alex shouted as Molly collapsed sobbing, onto her lifeless body._

_Evan moved quickly to comfort her._

"_Come on Mols, it's time to say goodbye, we have to let her go." Evan said as he fought back his own tears._

"_No…no…no…no…" Alex cried as she backed away in horror._

_Suddenly the door swung open and there stood Peter Drake, he and Evan gaped wide eyed at each other for a moment until he turned his attention to Molly, allowing himself only a fleeting glance at the lifeless body in the bed._

"_I'm here if you need me, Molly." He said reassuringly as his daughter moved cautiously to embrace him._

_Alex stumbled back into the corridor, no one had noticed her enter or leave, the sudden sound of babies cries seemed to be beckoning her onwards, and she found herself running along another corridor, this one was bustling with life. All around were nurses and patients and it appeared to be a maternity ward, she suddenly came to a stop outside a door. She gasped as she read the name scribbled on the board, pushing the door open she was confronted by the sight of herself, lying in bed looking rosy cheeked and blooming, as she cradled a newborn baby to her breast. The room was full of cards and flowers and a huge teddy bear with a pink bow around its neck sat in one of the visitor's chairs, she heard herself softly singing to her cradled child._

_The warm tears_

_The bad dreams_

_The soft trembling shoulders_

_The old fears_

_But I'm here_

_Through the long night with you_

_With you_

_Oh, what has it cost you_

_I almost lost you_

_A long, long time ago_

_Oh, you should have told me_

_But you had to bleed to know_

_All your past sins_

_Are since past_

_You should be sleeping_

_It's all right_

_Sleep tight_

_Through the long night with me_

_With me._

_Extracts from 'Through the Long Night' by Billy Joel (from the album Glass Houses 1980)_

Alex woke as the bright morning sunshine streamed through the blinds; her cheeks were wet with tears. The choice was made, she knew that now, and she let out a long sigh as if she was physically trying to expel all the hurt and pain.

"Alright, love?" A gruff voice asked from somewhere under the bedcovers.

"I think so; I thought I could somehow have it all, but I know now I was just fooling myself." Alex said quietly, more to herself than in reply as she rubbed her face to dry the tears.

"Y'what?" The gruff voice inquired, somewhat muffled from deep under the quilt as he manoeuvred himself into position.

He began slowly kissing the inside of her thighs and she thrilled at his hot breath against her skin as he moved slowly and tantalisingly towards his ultimate target. He was here and he was full of life, and she was too, she gratefully acknowledged that as her body sparked to his touch.

"My God, Gene?" She panted as he reached her hot centre, lapping and teasing her with his tongue.

"I'm happy to be your God, Bolly, but you bring out the Devil in me." Gene said as he threw back the bedclothes with a wicked grin, and he continued in his task with relish.


End file.
